Information Technology Disaster Recovery

Information Technology Disaster Recovery

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Webster's Dictionary defines a disaster as "a sudden calamitous event bringing great damage, loss, or destruction; a sudden or great misfortune or failure." In a contemporary IT context, disaster is an event that shuts down a computing environment for more than a few minutes, often for several hours, days or even years. A disaster can wipe out a company's normal business day or even its entire IT infrastructure. While not different from other kinds of outages, the outage of a company's IT infrastructure spreads over a wider area, and affects more components. It is no longer a question of whether disaster will occur: it will. Thus, establishing reliable disaster recovery (DR) capabilities are critical to ensuring that an organization will be able to survive significant events. Understanding when to initiate DR procedures during an event is critical to achieving expected DR outcomes (BEC Technologies, 2008).

The principles of Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Planning are quite straightforward: creating a remote DR center is the first step in developing a well-organized plan, and this will directly affect the recoverycapabilities of the organization. The contents of the plan should follow a logical sequence and be written in a standard and understandable format. Effective documentation and procedures are extremely important in adisaster recovery plan. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the Houston Community College (HCC) in Houston, Texas, has played a pioneering role in developing a DR plan, and continues developing its systems for the future. The objective of this study is to discuss the Information Technology Disaster Recovery Plan at HCC.

Statement of Problem

The flooding that resulted from Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 2005 compelled most businesses and universities in vulnerable areas to reevaluate their Disaster Recovery plans. Several businesses were crippled because they lost records and information spanning several years. Concerned about their ability to operate if disasters of similar magnitude recurred, managements developed DR plans that describe the IT mechanisms for the purpose of bringing a functioning system back online (Robb, 2005). These plans also help organizations reinstate their IT systems and services after a significant large-scale interruption with a minimal time lag. Without a DR plan in place most businesses run the risk of crippling data loss.

Current ICT frameworks are constructed according to technologies available during the event. During the preparedness stage, research is conducted in universities and research centres into the nature of different types of disasters, their impacts, and the precautions that need to be taken, as well as emerging technologies. The internet is widely used to exchange ideas during research studies and for collaborative projects among local, regional and national authorities, flood experts, and universities and research centres.

Statement of the Objective

Modern organizations recognize that success increasingly depends on their ability to provide information on demand to customers, suppliers, employees, and other stakeholders. This reality has forced managers to seek better ways to protect their information assets and to prepare for quick recovery in case of a disaster. A business's definition of a disaster varies according to its business model, geographic location, and other factors. System, component, network, and application failures that result in downtime, data loss, and serious financial impact ...